Pentagon takes a tiny step toward addressing rape in the military

Admitting the problem is the first step toward recovery. On Friday, the Department of Defense issued its eighth annual report on sexual assault in the military, a report that included this statistic: the military estimates there were 19,000 sexual assaults among active duty personnel in fiscal year 2010. But only 2,412 sexual assaults were reported and only 191, or 8 percent, resulted in a conviction. Most of the rapes occurred stateside, not in overseas deployments.

On Monday, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told members of Congress, “Sometimes, these matters are put aside. They are not followed up with.” He announced a series of incremental policy changes on reporting, investigating and prosecuting the rapes. “I will change the way they are handled,” he said.

But unless the changes address chain of command and commander discretion on whether to bring charges, they will do little to protect victims of rape and sexual assault in a system that seeks to protect the institution at the expense of justice.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, has introduced legislation, HR3435, to take sexual assault out of the normal chain of command of the military and place it in a new oversight office staffed by civilian and military personnel.

The Pentagon noted a 1 percent increase in the number of rapes reported from 2010 to 2011, citing this as progress. However restricted reports — reports that get care for the victim but result in no investigation, no naming of the perpetrator — increased in the last year.

Nancy Parrish, president of Protect Our Defenders, a human rights organization that seeks to change the military justice system, said: “If victims had confidence in the system for dealing with sexual assaults, restricted reports would have decreased, not increased.